Hold the Olives
by Laura Louisa Lewis
Summary: In Season 4, Episode 10, Eddie Janko disclosed that Jamie Reagan is allergic to olives. How did Eddie find out about her partner's allergy, and how did a much younger Jamie and his family first discover it? #6 in the There's a Story Behind That series.
1. Chapter 1

_Some dialogue from the Season 4 episode, Mistaken Identity._

* * *

 **CHAPTER 1**

 _December 2013_

"Hey, Janko, where's your partner?" Sal Beroni called to Eddie Janko as she entered one of the 12th Precinct's favored bars after tour.

"Oh, he had some dress-up thing with a lawyer friend," Eddie called back to Sal.

"Wait, you mean that cute brunette that met him at the precinct this afternoon?" one of the other officers asked. "I'll _bet_ he has a _thing_ with her."

Eddie tried to ignore the innuendos that immediately started flying after that remark as she made her way to the bar and ordered a beer. Normally, Jamie would be here with her and the many other cops, sharing a drink and a game of darts or pool. But not tonight. Tonight, he was out at some fancy hotel with that little lawyer girlfriend of his. _Dana_. Dana, who couldn't have been more obvious about marking her territory when she'd shown up at the precinct that afternoon. Of course, Jamie hadn't exactly backed off from Dana's advances. Eddie gulped down a swig of her beer. And it wasn't like she cared, anyway.

An hour later, she was one beer down and had trounced Beroni at a game of darts before he'd left to head home to his fiancé. She was headed to the bar for a refill when a call of, "Look what the cat dragged in!" carried across the crowded bar. Whistles and other calls of "Jamie Reagan" and "Prince Charming" echoed after it.

Eddie turned around to glance at the source of the commotion. And there Jamie was, looking like he'd just come from prom or fallen off the top of a wedding cake, as other officers suggested; so handsome in his tux. And there _she_ was again, in a short, low cut black dress, hanging on his arm. Eddie turned away, hoping they wouldn't see her.

But it was too late. Jamie made some remark to Dana, then turned in her direction. "Oh, hey, Eddie. Join us."

Eddie glanced over the two lawyers. "No, I feel a little under-dressed." And more to the point, she didn't want to watch her partner fawn over some tiny brunette hussy, or watch her hanging onto him. Not that she was jealous or anything. Damn, what was wrong with her? That one beer must have gone straight to her head

"Just sit down, Janko," Jamie insisted.

Eddie reluctantly took a seat at the table. "So, how was the big lawyer shindig?"

"Kind of like Shark Week," Jamie remarked. For Dana's sake, he didn't add how the evening had reinforced in his mind that he'd made the right decision to leave the law for the NYPD.

Dana laughed. "Come on. I thought the keynote speaker was pretty good."

" _Civil Litigation in the Internet Age_. I think even the waiters were nodding off."

That remark reminded Eddie of another waiter. "Oh, that sounds like that joker from the diner the other day."

"Don't remind me." Jamie rubbed at the side of his face, remembering the crazy itching.

Dana glanced from Jamie to Eddie. "What happened?"

"Oh, girlfriend here orders a chopped salad, as usual. It's embarrassing."

Jamie sighed. "Not everyone puts away a steak sandwich at lunch, Eddie."

"Okay, so he tells the guy no olives, 'cause he's allergic..."

Dana glanced at Jamie. "You're allergic to olives?"

Eddie quickly glanced from Dana to Jamie. _Jamie hadn't told this girl about his allergy? Maybe they weren't that close!_ Eddie thought back to when she'd learned of her partner's allergy, just the previous week…

* * *

 _Check back tomorrow for the whole story of how Eddie learned about Jamie's problem with olives!  
_


	2. Chapter 2

_As always, many thanks for the reviews! Today's chapter is a nice long one.  
_

* * *

 _The Other Day…_

"So, Partner, have you given any thought to lunch?" Eddie Janko asked her partner, Jamie Reagan, as he piloted their patrol car away from the 12th precinct.

Jamie glanced at his watch. "Ed, it's only ten o'clock. Nowhere near time for meal break. Did you skip breakfast or something?"

Eddie sat back in her seat with a huff. "No. Had a nice bowl of oatmeal and some bacon. But then I had to chase down that purse snatcher. That burned a _lot_ of calories."

"You chased him two whole blocks before he tripped over his own feet," Jamie argued back.

"Still burned some calories. And who says I'm hungry?" Eddie paused at Jamie's incredulous snicker. "Okay, maybe I am a little hungry. But I'm also planning ahead."

"So where do you want to go this time?" Jamie asked.

"There's this Greek diner I went to with this guy last weekend…"

"You want us to go to lunch somewhere a date took you for dinner?"

"It was a crappy date with a cheapskate," Eddie argued. "Dinner at the diner and a walk in Central Park. If I wasn't dressed up nice, I would have thought I was on patrol with you, Reagan. But the food was great. They have this tzatziki sauce that's to _die_ for. And they have some salads that looked good, if you're into that kind of thing. All fresh and green."

"Okay, fine," Jamie agreed. "If we're anywhere in the area when it's actually lunchtime, we can stop at your diner."

==BB==BB==

"… and hold the olives," Jamie told the waiter as he completed his order for his usual salad. As it turned out, they had been in the area of Eddie's recommended lunch destination when it came time for lunch. And, as she'd told him, the diner had a selection of salads to choose from.

The waiter lowered his order pad from his face, where he'd been using it to cover a yawn. "Yes, sir. And for you, miss?"

"I'll take the steak gyro with fries, and some extra sauce on the side."

"Extra tzatziki," the waiter told himself as he scribbled a note on his pad. "It'll be right out."

A few minutes later, the waiter returned. "Here you go. Steak gyro for you, sir, and the Greek salad for the lady. With extra tzatziki."

"Actually, it's the other way around," Jamie informed the waiter, while Eddie did her best to suppress a snicker.

"Oh." The waiter shifted the dishes around. "There. Anything else you need?"

"No, we're good now," Jamie picked up his fork and poked around his salad. _Drat._ He'd forgotten to ask for the dressing on the side, and the waiter had been extra generous with it. And he didn't really have time to send it back. He speared some of the lettuce and veggies on his fork, and took a bite.

"So? Good, right?" Eddie was already two bites into her sandwich.

Jamie nodded. "Good." That tzatziki-based dressing really added a tang to the veggies. He speared another bite, then another. There was something else in there also that was adding a strange flavor to the salad. Kind of a salty aspect that was making the inside of his mouth feel tingly. He picked up his bottle of water and took a swig of it to wash it away.

"I don't know what they put in this tzatziki, but isn't it the best you've tasted?" Eddie asked a few minutes later. She'd already finished off half her sandwich.

"Yeah," Jamie agreed as he lightly scratched at a spot on the side of his jaw that was suddenly itching. "Hey, can I have a taste of that extra sauce?"

"Sure. Why?" Eddie asked. She stuck her unused fork in the sauce, swirled it around and handed it to him.

Jamie licked the sauce off the fork. It had that tang that his salad did, but not the salty flavor. So it was something in the salad itself… He scratched at his neck, which was also itching like crazy, along with the roof of his mouth and his tongue. He hadn't felt itching like that since…. _Oh. Crap._ Since he was six and Danny ordered that damn pizza…

"Jamie? You okay?" Eddie asked.

"Ed, are there olives in there?" He pushed his salad toward his partner while he attended to the intense itching underneath his chin.

Eddie poked through the salad. "There's some mushed up stuff here. Might be the olive tapenade."

"Oh, great," Jamie moaned as he rubbed at the side of his face in an effort to stop that itching.

Eddie looked up at her partner. "Reagan! What's wrong?"

"Allergic to olives." Jamie gulped down another few swigs of water, hoping it would slow the itching and swelling.

"I'll say! You're getting the biggest hives I've ever seen!" Eddie looked around the diner. "Hey! Waiter! Over here!"

Their waiter stifled another yawn as he ambled over. "Yes?"

"Did you put olives in my partner's salad?" she demanded.

The waiter looked from Eddie over to Jamie. "Yes, extra olives. Just like he asked for."

"NO olives. He asked for NO OLIVES, because he's obviously allergic to them!" Eddie almost yelled at the waiter. "

"Really?" The waiter whipped out his order pad. "Must have forgotten to write that down. I knew there was something about olives. I thought it was extra olives."

"Is there a problem here, Officer?" Drawn by the commotion, the owner of the restaurant came to join them.

"Your waiter here just poisoned my partner. Put extra olive tapenade on his salad when he asked for no olives, because he's allergic to them," Eddie huffed. "Just look at him!"

"Wow, man, you're really puffing up," the waiter commented after following Eddie's command.

"I ought to arrest you right now for assault on a police officer. He specifically asked for no olives, and you go and bring him a salad full of them!"

"Ed, it's okay. It's not thath bad," Jamie tried to argue. "Just need an an'ihisthamine." _Great. And now the swelling was kicking in._ "Let'th go."

"Georgie, did you do that?" the owner demanded.

"Uncle Theo, it was an accident. I forgot to write it down," the waiter argued before he yawned again.

"Not another word, you!" Theo ordered. "You stay up all night trying to be a musician, playing jigs all over town, then try to work here all day. But no more!" he snapped at his nephew before turning to Jamie. "Do you need an ambulance?"

"No buth," Jamie mumbled as he stood up. "Don' need a bus."

Eddie glanced at her partner, then replied to the owner. "He says no ambulance. I'll drive him to the hospital. But I think we need to get there now."

"If that's want you want," the owner relented. "But you come back. Free lunch on me when you come back," he called after them. "I serve you myself! No olives anywhere!"

==BB==BB==

"Urticaria and angioedema. You really are allergic to something," the emergency room nurse commented as she began her examination of Jamie's hive-covered, puffy face.

"eh'lives," Jamie tried to respond.

"He means olives," Eddie supplied. "And, _what_ and _what_?"

"Hives and swelling," the nurse explained. "Any trouble breathing, Officer?"

Jamie shook his head no. "Can' thalth."

"He says he can't talk. Because of the swelling. The… angioedema, right?"

Jamie and the nurse both fixed a look on Eddie. "Okay. Fine. Shutting up," she conceded.

"Have you had a similar reaction to olives before?" the nurse asked.

Jamie nodded and pulled his notepad and pen from one of the cargo pockets of his uniform pants. He wrote something on it and showed it to the nurse.

"Oh, that long ago? Funny thing, the treatment hasn't changed much since then, so you probably remember what comes next, don't you?"

Jamie winced and nodded again.

"The doctor should be in to see you in just a few minutes, and then we'll get the drugs on board. You'll be feeling better in no time."

Jamie scribbled something else on his pad.

The nurse laughed. "Oh, no, hon. Injection is the way to go, and your hiney's the best place to do it. Now, you push that call button if you need anything before I come back."

Jamie's shoulders slumped as the nurse left the room.

Eddie tried not to laugh. "Oh, Reagan. You're getting shots in your ass?"

==BB==BB==

Half an hour later, they were still waiting, and Jamie was still itching. He rubbed his knuckles against the hives on his right cheek.

"Reagan, stop scratching. You'll mess up your pretty face," Eddie teased her partner. She flipped over another page in the fashion magazine someone had left in the ER treatment room.

Jamie grabbed up his notepad and pen. _It itches!_ he wrote in big letters and flashed it at her. He'd given up on trying to pronounce most words a few minutes earlier. He dropped the pad and rubbed furiously at the hives on the side of his jaw.

Eddie put down the magazine. "Okay. That's it. I'm going to go get that doctor." Eddie headed for the hallway. She returned only a minute later with the nurse and a doctor in tow. "Reagan, look who I found?"

"Officer Reagan? I'm Doctor Carrier. Let's have a look at this allergic reaction of yours," the doctor said as he approached his patient and began a brief examination. "Jeanne, do you have the meds ready?"

"Right here, Doctor." The nurse tilted the tray she'd brought in with her, giving Jamie and Eddie a good view of the large syringes on it.

"Good. Officer, Jeanne told me you've been through this before, when you were a child, so let me remind you of the side effects. The antihistamine is going to make you sleepy for… oh, probably the rest of the day. We'll keep you here until the allergic reaction subsides, I'd expect in an hour or so, and then we'll try to send you home. Do you have a family member or friend who could keep an eye on you while the drugs wear off?"

Jamie nodded. "'er," he mumbled with a gesture toward Eddie.

"Your girlfriend?"

Jamie shook his head. "'art'er."

"Partner?" the doctor guessed.

Jamie nodded again.

"Yeah, we ride together," Eddie volunteered.

"Okay, that will work. Now, drop those pants and let's get you drugged up."

Jamie looked and Eddie and gestured toward the door.

Eddie got the message. "I'm going to step outside, Reagan. But I'll be back."

==BB==BB==

"So, Reagan's allergic to olives, huh?" Sergeant Renzulli commented as he looked in on his former boot, now zoned out on the hospital bed in an antihistamine-induced slumber.

"Yes, Sir," Eddie responded quickly.

"Always knew he was picky about what went on his sandwiches, but I figured he had his reasons for that. Didn't know it was an allergy."

"And a bad one. You should have seen the size of the hives on his face. And the swelling. He could hardly talk before they gave him that shot of Benadryl."

"Right in the butt, too, I bet."

"Yes, sir. I mean, I think that's what they did. I didn't see, because I left the room for a while after they told him to drop his pants."

Renzulli tried not to smile. "He let you stay with him until then?"

"He didn't ask me to leave. Not that I would have. Somebody needed to tell the doctor and nurses what happened, and he could barely talk. I didn't think he should be alone in that condition."

"Good thinking. Hospitals. They're bad enough when you can communicate with those medical folks."

"Yeah," Eddie agreed. She hated these places. "You need someone to watch out for you."

"Yeah, and on that subject, that's your assignment for the rest of your tour. Keep an eye on Sleeping Cutie in there, like you were doing when I got here, and after the docs kick him free, take him to his grandpa's down in Bay Ridge. The docs said they'll wake him in an hour and send him home if the allergic reaction is going away, but they don't want him being alone for a while."

"To Commissioner Reagan's house?" Eddie almost squeaked.

"Well, it's the former commissioner's – Henry Reagan's – house also. Although I'd expect the rest of the family to make their way down there as soon as they can." Renzulli pulled a piece of scrap paper out of his pocket. "Here's the address, in case your partner can't remember it. Henry's expecting you."

* * *

 _Tomorrow: Eddie takes her partner back to his family home and learns about a scary day for the Reagan family..._


	3. Chapter 3

_Posting later than I wanted tonight. But it's another long chapter!_

* * *

"You settled in over there?" Eddie asked after she finished helping the hospital orderly buckle Jamie into the passenger seat of the RMP. As expected, after an hour and a half, Jamie had shown enough improvement in his symptoms that the hospital had released him, but he was still drowsy and unsteady on his feet.

"Wrong side," he mumbled. "This's your side. 'm the driver."

"Well, you're not driving today, so get comfortable over there in the passenger seat," Eddie informed her partner.

"Got to drive. You don't… don't know where my place is," Jamie insisted.

"Do too," Eddie informed her partner as she pulled away from the hospital entrance. "I have your address, and a smart phone with Google Maps and street-level view. Big brick house on the corner, with white trim and wood columns. That's a _nice_ place, Reagan."

"That's Dad's place. Not mine."

"Well, that's where we're going. The doctor says you need to be observed for the next few hours, and your grandfather's available."

Jamie sighed and slumped back against the seat. "Don't need them fussing," he muttered.

"Reagan, come on. Learn to appreciate that big family of yours," Eddied teased. "So, when did you first find out you were allergic to olives?" Eddie asked her partner, in an attempt to keep him awake.

"I was six. Almost seven."

"Six, really? I didn't think many kids that age even ate olives."

"I didn't," Jamie mumbled. "Ask Danny. His fault."

"Your brother Danny? What did he do?" When Jamie didn't respond, Eddie quickly glance his direction. Well she wasn't going to get any more info out of him – he was asleep again. But that also meant he couldn't complain about her driving. She stepped on the accelerator, bringing the car right up to the speed limit for the remainder of their trip.

==BB==BB==

Thanks to her speedy driving it wasn't long before she was pulling to a stop in front of the Reagan home. "Okay, Reagan. We're here." She lightly punched her partner in the arm to wake him up.

"I'm just gonna stay here and sleep," Jamie mumbled. "Too much trouble to get inside."

Eddie walked around the car and pulled Jamie to his feet. "C'mon, Reagan. I'm sure your grandfather has a nice sofa inside all set up for you to crash on." She led him up the front walk to the door, where Henry Reagan was waiting for them.

"Welcome, Officer Janko," Henry greeted them. "Right this way. I've got a sofa, pillow and blanket all ready for this guy."

"Wanna go upstairs to my bed," Jamie mumbled.

"And who's going to help you up those stairs?" Henry retorted. "You'll go lie down in the solarium." He moved to Jamie's side and helped Eddie lead him to the comfortable sofa he'd prepared. Despite his small protest earlier, Jamie offered no resistance to their lying him down on the sofa and Henry draping the blanket over him, and he was asleep again seconds later. "Now, Officer Janko, I insist you stay for a cup of coffee," Henry told the young officer as they headed back toward the front of the house.

"Oh, no, I couldn't," Eddie replied. "Got to get back to work."

"Nonsense. You've been working all afternoon. I bet it's time for a coffee break, and a homemade chocolate chip cookie."

"Well, if you have homemade chocolate chip cookies…" Eddie relented.

"I do. They're in the kitchen." Henry motioned for Eddie to follow him. A few minutes later, they were seated at the table in the cozy kitchen with mugs of coffee and cookies.

Eddie looked around the room. "This is a nice kitchen," she commented before taking a bite of her cookie.

"It's Francis' wife's doing. Mary remodeled it just a few years before she passed. She and my Betty spent many happy hours in here." Henry sipped his coffee.

"So, this is where Reag… where Jamie grew up?"

"Francis, Mary and the kids moved in when he was just a few months old. It's the only home he remembers."

"That must be nice, growing up in one house." Her own childhood had been spent moving numerous times from one house to a progressively larger and more extravagant house. Until that terrible day when her father's schemes had been exposed and it all came crashing down.

"These walls do hold a lot of memories," Henry commented.

"Speaking of that, how did you find out Jamie was allergic to olives? I asked him, and all I got out of him before he fell asleep was that it was somehow Danny's fault."

"Well, that came a few years later. It started when he was four. He was one of those children who liked to explore the world by tasting it, which led to him swallowing a variety of small objects…"

"Really?" Eddie interrupted.

"Oh, yes. Get him to tell you about that sometime. It's a talent that probably saved his life a few years ago. But back to the olives… One day, little Jamie swallowed his mother's pearl earrings and sent himself right to the hospital. After that, Mary tried to redirect Jamie's attention to things he actually should swallow by leaving small plates of fruits and veggies out for him. He'd gobble them right up; everything she left out."

"So, that's why he likes the veggies so much," Eddie commented. "That was his lunch today, you know. Salad."

"Hm. I'd heard he does that." Henry shook his head at his grandson's food choices. "Like I said, Jamie would eat anything Mary set out for him. Well, one day, Mary left him a plate of black olives slices, carefully arranged in a little smiley face. Near as we can tell, the boy chewed on a few of them, spit most of them right back out, and rearranged the smiley face into a frowny one."

"Did he have that allergic reaction then? That must have been so scary for a four year old!"

"No, that didn't happen for a few more years. Looking back, the docs said that was the initial exposure that set him up to have an allergic reaction the next time. He ate just enough of the olives for his body to realize it was allergic to the things. But that next time, he was six, I think… That was a scary day for all of the kids."

==BB==BB==

"Hey, Grandma's here!" Joe called out as Danny turned the car around the corner on the last leg of their trip home from school.

Jamie sat up straighter in the back seat and strained to see for himself. "Do you think she brought cookies today?" He loved days when Grandma came to visit, since she always brought something homemade and yummy, or helped Mommy bake something at home. They'd let him help sometimes, last year when he was in morning kindergarten and home by lunchtime. Grandma would give him one of the first cookies fresh out of the oven, or let him lick the cake frosting right off the beaters…

"Jamie, leave the seat belt alone until Danny stops the car," Joe reminded his little brother.

Jamie moved his hand away from the seat belt latch he hadn't even realized he was touching. But as soon as Danny turned into the driveway, he unbuckled the belt, grabbed his backpack and ran for the back door.

"Hi, Grandma!" Jamie called to his grandmother as he ran through the door into the kitchen. "Hi… Mommy?" his voice trailed off as he noticed his grandfather was there also and that they both had arms wrapped around his mother, and that she looked really upset. "Mommy?"

Mary pulled away and knelt down. "Come here, my boy." She hugged Jamie tight as soon as he got close enough.

"Mom, what's wrong? Grandpa?" Danny demanded from the door as the older Reagan children entered the kitchen.

"Jamie, your Daddy had a little accident at work this afternoon. He's at the hospital. I'm about to go see him and make sure he's okay, and Grandma Betty is going to watch out for you until we get back," Mary explained to her children.

"How bad?" Danny asked.

Henry fixed a look on his grandson, warning him to not ask too many questions that might upset the younger children. "Your father pulled a little girl out of the way of a speeding car this afternoon. They don't know for sure; he was either grazed by the car or hurt something jumping out of the way. I've been told it's not serious, but the hospital needs your mother there."

"I wanna come with you!" Jamie almost cried. "Please?"

"Yeah, me too," Danny chimed in. Erin and Joe quickly added their own "me too's" to Danny's.

"Jamie, you need to stay here with your Grandma," Mary told her son. She stood up and gently nudged him toward Betty. "Danny, Erin, Joe, the three of you also. You need to get your homework done and your dinner on schedule. Be good for Grandma, okay?"

"Yes, Mommy," Jamie mumbled between sniffles as he hugged his grandmother.

"Betty, I'll call when I know something." With that, Henry led Mary out the front door of the house.

==BB==BB==

"And that was just the start of Jamie's very bad afternoon," Henry concluded. "Danny, would you like to take over now and explain how you made your brother have an allergic reaction? He was here for the next part," Henry explained to Eddie.

"Oh, the kid's still blaming me for that?" Danny Reagan stated with a smirk.

Eddie looked behind her. "Detective Reagan! When did you get here?"

Danny shrugged "Couple of minutes ago. Came in the front door; checked on my kid brother. Smelled the cookies in here…" Danny grabbed up one of said cookies and stuffed most of it in his mouth.

"Manners, Detective," Henry scolded. "There's a lady present."

Danny swallowed the huge bite of cookie. "So, after Mom and Grandpa left, Grandma got us all settled in there," Danny pointed to the adjacent dining room, "working on our homework. Of course, Jamie, being a first-grader, only had one little math worksheet to do…"

==BB==BB==

3 + 5 = ?

Jamie stared at the numbers on the page until they blurred out as more tears filled his eyes. He scribbled down the number nine, then rethought that answer. It was eight. He knew that. Why couldn't he get any of the questions right today? He turned his pencil over and tried to erase the wrong answer. The damp paper shredded instead. In frustration, he slammed the pencil down hard. "This isn't working! I hate math!"

"Maybe if you'd quit blubbering and focus, you'd be done already," Danny snipped at his baby brother. The kid had no right to complain about simple arithmetic; not while he was over here trying to calculate the area of a cone for his geometry class.

"Danny, don't be mean to Jamie," Erin looked up from her history homework to scold her brother.

"Erin, don't try to be Mom," Danny snipped back at his sister.

"Can you two stop it already? You're just making everything worse!" Joe loudly snapped at both his older siblings. "Jamie's already upset…"

"Am not!" Jamie insisted. He crossed his arms on the table and put his head down on his arms so nobody could see him almost crying.

The ringing of the telephone interrupted the argument. As soon as they heard their grandmother answer it, the three older Reagan children quieted down and strained to hear what she was saying. Only a minute later, Betty stepped into the room, a small smile on her face.

"Grandma, did you hear from Mom or Grandpa?" Joe asked.

"Good news, children. That was you grandfather on the phone. Your father is going to be fine. The doctor says he pulled a muscle in his back that will heal up soon with a little medicine and a lot of rest."

"Are Mommy and Daddy coming home now?" Jamie asked hopefully.

"Sweetie, not just yet. The doctor wants your Daddy to stay overnight at the hospital, and your Mommy is going to stay with him."

"Oh." Jamie shoulders slumped. "I need Mommy to help me with my math."

Betty looked at Jamie's ruined math worksheet. Clearly, it wasn't just math that Jamie needed his mother for. "Jamie, why don't you help me with some math instead? I'm going to make some of your Daddy's favorite cookies, so he'll have them when he comes home tomorrow, and I could use an assistant to help with the measuring. Come along."

Jamie quickly hopped out of his chair and ran to his grandmother's side. "Okay!"

"Oh, and your grandfather is coming back home later and is insisting on bringing pizzas for dinner. He's going to call back in an hour to find out what toppings to get on it."

"Sausage!" Joe called out.

"Cheese and pepperoni!" Jamie added. "And nothing else."

"No, green peppers also," Erin threw in her preference.

"And black olives." Danny added.

"Ugh, no olives!" Jamie insisted.

"Yes, olives!" Danny insisted back. "At least on my pizza. Lots of olives."

==BB==BB==

"And that's why, a few hours later, I came home with one pizza that was half pepperoni and half sausage, and one that was meat and veggies. Including those olives Danny wanted," Henry added to the end of Danny's retelling of the story.

Danny nodded. "And little Jamie asked for a slice of my pizza, and you can probably figure out what happened next…"

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

_Ugh, late posting tonight also! Thanks for hanging in there and reviewing!_

* * *

Jamie Reagan nibbled the last bit of cheese off the crust of his slice of pizza and sighed happily. Cheese and pepperoni pizza was his very favorite food. He looked over at the open pizza boxes, wondering if he had room in his tummy for one more slice. Then the remaining pizza in the other box caught his eye. The little strips of green – green peppers, he thought Erin had called them – stood out against the golden cheese and the brown bits of sausage and the black olives. He wondered what they tasted like. Mommy hadn't put any of those out, back when she was leaving veggies and stuff out for him to taste. "Danny, can I have some of your pizza?" Jamie asked his oldest brother. "Please? But can you take off the olives first?"

Danny was tempted to tell his brother to bug off and go eat his own food, but he was feeling bad about snapping at the kid that afternoon. He cut half a slice off his and Erin's pizza, picked off a few of the obvious olive pieces – more for him, if Jamie didn't want them - and dropped the slice on his brother's plate. He added an extra green pepper or two, just to deprive Erin of them in revenge for her scolding comments earlier. "There you go, kid. Enjoy."

Jamie's eyes went wide. Danny had been extra generous with the green peppers. "Thank you!" He lifted the slice toward his mouth.

"Hey, Jame, you know those green peppers are kind of hot," Joe tried to warn his brother, just a few seconds too late.

Jamie bit down into the pizza and chewed. His eyes started watering as he got his first experience with capsaicin-infused food. Unfortunately, the burning heat of the green peppers completely masked the salty flavor of the olives. "Hot!"

Danny snickered. "You don't like my pizza?" he teased as he pushed Jamie's glass of root beer toward him. "Here. I knew you were too little to appreciate good pizza toppings."

"It's okay," Jamie stammered after he gulped down some of the cool liquid. Actually, once he got past the surprising heat, those peppers had tasted pretty good. And even if they hadn't, he wasn't going to let Danny know. He was a big boy and could eat big-boy pizza toppings, even if they made his mouth feel all tingly inside. He stuffed another bite into his mouth. "Mmmm. Yum."

Danny shook his head at his baby brother. He couldn't tell if Jamie was putting on a show, or if he really liked the veggies on the pizza. "Little freak," he muttered under his breath.

Not too long afterward, the pizzas were all eaten, the boxes and the disposable plates and cups had been bagged up, and the Reagan family was settling in front of the television for a replay of a John Wayne movie on the new VCR player. Jamie squeezed on the couch in his second-favorite spot, between Joe and Danny, while Erin turned off the overhead light and dimmed the lamps and Henry fumbled with the remote controls for the VCR.

"Got it!" Henry finally exclaimed when another push of the play button finally caused the screen to light up. "Damn technology and its buttons."

"Henry, language," Betty reminded her husband.

"I'm sorry, my love," Henry stated as he took a seat in the chair beside hers. "Kids, what I meant was _darn_ technology and its buttons."

" _Henry_!" Betty fussed through a smile while Joe laughed and Danny and Erin rolled their eyes and their grandparents' dorkiness.

Jamie tried to focus on the movie. It was that guy in the cowboy hat on the horse again. All of Grandpa's favorite movies seemed to feature a guy on a horse. Was it always the same guy? He thought it might be, but sometimes the horse was different, and sometimes the guy's hat was different. He scratched at an itchy spot on the side of his face while he tried to figure that question. And then the front of his neck was itching, and the other side of his face, and all along his jaw. Suddenly, making that itching stop was more important than anything else.

"Kid, you have fleas or something?" Danny suddenly snapped. He grabbed Jamie's left arm and held it down.

"No! And lemme go!" Jamie yanked his arm free of Danny's grasp and scooted closer to Joe.

"Then quit squirming around and running your elbows into me."

"But my face itches," Jamie complained even as he continued to scratch at the itches with both hands. "I have to make it stop itching."

Joe draped one arm around his little brother's shoulders. "What's up with the itching?"

"I don't know. Danny's pizza made my mouth tingly, and now I'm all itchy all over my face," Jamie whined.

Joe took a closer look at his brother. "Grandma! Something's wrong with Jamie!"

Betty was on her feet and headed to the couch in seconds.

"Look at his face! He's getting all red and bumpy!" Joe pulled Jamie into his lap so his grandmother would have a place to sit while she checked Jamie over.

"Jamie, Sweetie, where does it itch?" Betty sat down on the couch, squeezing Danny out of his seat, and took Jamie's hands in hers.

"All over my face, and my neck and inside my head too," Jamie whimpered as he tried to pull his hands free. "I need to scratch it, Grandma!"

"Try not to do that, my sweet one. Henry, come pick up Jamie. We're going to the hospital right now…"

==BB==BB==

"And that was the last we saw of Jamie or the grandparents that night," Danny concluded. "Hey, look who's up!" he called as Jamie drowsily wandered into the kitchen.

Jamie dropped himself into a chair, wincing as his sore behind hit the seat. "Hey, Dan. When did you get here?"

"Few minutes ago. So, kid, what's got you butthurt today?" he teased.

"Funny, Danny. Funny." Jamie leaned forward, lowering his head, which was also aching, to his hands.

"We always knew he was a pain in the ass, but now he _has_ a pain in the ass," Danny joked again and was rewarded with snickers from Henry and Eddie.

"How many more of these do you have?" Jamie muttered without looking up.

"Oh, lots more. Like, Jamie, what do you now have three of that most people only have one of? An assh…"

"Daniel, maybe you should save that one for when there isn't a lady present?" Henry remarked.

Jamie looked up and finally noticed his partner's presence. "Hey, Ed. You're still here?"

Henry smirked. "He's just full of astute observations this afternoon, isn't he?"

"Yes, I'm still here. Your charming grandfather asked me to stay for coffee."

"We were just telling your lovely partner about when we first discovered your allergy to olives," Henry explained.

"Oh, and did you tell her how it was Danny's doing?" Jamie asked.

"Hey, that was not my fault!"

"Was too. You ordered the olives, and you loaded up my slice with Erin's peppers so I couldn't tell there were olives in there."

"So? I didn't make you allergic to olives, and you didn't even know you were allergic back then. And besides, you were the one who got to spend that night with Mom and Dad," Danny argued.

"At the _hospital!_ "

* * *

 _Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of little Jamie's olive drama..._


	5. Chapter 5

_At the hospital._ Jamie's thoughts took him back to that night. Danny was right. He _had_ got to spend the night with Mom and Dad, and Grandma also...

==BB==BB==

Jamie curled up on his side on the bed in Brooklyn Methodist Hospital's Emergency Room. "Ih wah Mom-eh," he whimpered. Tears slipped out of his puffy eyes. He couldn't talk right anymore, so how could he make Grandma understand he needed Mommy? "Mh'meh," he tried again.

"I know you want your Mommy." Betty rubbed her grandson's back. "I know this is scary, but Mommy will be here soon. Grandpa went upstairs to your Daddy's room to get her and bring her back. And then the doctor will make you better."

Jamie sniffled. He wanted Mommy. Maybe she could do something to make the itching stop. He rubbed furiously at the sides of his face with his hands. Not that it did much good, since the meany nurse had wrapped both his hands in gauze so his couldn't scratch himself.

Betty grabbed his hands and held them firmly in hers. "Jamie, don't do that. You don't want to make your face hurt, do you?"

Jamie yelled in frustration and kicked out at the blanket at the end of the bed. The yell ended in a sob, and then he was crying, and he didn't even _care_ that he was a big boy who was too old to cry. Everything itched and he couldn't scratch hard enough to make it stop, and he couldn't talk right…

"Shhh. Shhh, Jamie. You'll only make yourself feel worse," Grandma Betty tried to sooth him.

… and his Daddy was in the hospital, and his Mommy wasn't here with him. "Mh'meh!" he choked out between sobs. And now his nose was getting stuffed up so he could hardly breathe.

"I'm right here, sweetie," Mary called as she ran through the door. She sat down beside Jamie on the hospital bed and hugged him close. "My sweet boy. I'm here."

Betty stood up. "Now that you're here, I'm going to fetch that doctor. They'll not be ignoring our little boy any longer." She stalked out of the room.

Mary stroked her baby's boy's head. "Jamie, don't worry. Your Grandma will be right back with the doctor. No one says no to Grandma Betty when she's got her temper up," she told her son.

True to Mary's prediction, Betty returned only minutes later, physically dragging a doctor behind her by his arm. "You see, young man. The boy's having trouble breathing. Now go do your job."

The doctor removed his stethoscope from around his neck. "I see that, Mrs. Reagan. Thanks for coming to let me know."

"Hmph." Betty crossed her arms across her chest and glared at the doctor as his reasonable response took the wind out of her sails.

"So… Jamie, right? I'm Doctor Lilborne. Your grandmother tells me you've got a bad case of the itchies?"

Jamie nodded and swiped at his nose. At least that gauze was good for something. "Yeh'er," he mumbled.

"Let's take a quick listen to your lungs, and then we'll get that itching stopped. Take a deep breath for me, okay?" The doctor pressed the stethoscope to Jamie's back and listened to several places. "Good. Sounds clear. Now, let's take a look at this allergic reaction. Those are some impressive hives, young man," he commented. "And you've got a good amount of swelling, too. Bet you can't talk straight."

"Nuh, 'er," Jamie tried to respond.

"Textbook food allergy. Has he eaten anything different tonight, Mrs. Reagan?" Doctor Lilborne directed his question to Mary.

"Betty?" Mary asked her mother-in-law.

"Just that cheese and pepperoni pizza he likes, and a slice of Joe's sausage pizza. Nothing new, and from DiMarco's, the same place Henry always buys the pizza in Bay Ridge."

Jamie looked at his grandmother. She'd left something off the list. "'anny' 'izza."

"Annie's pizza?" The doctor tried to translate Jamie's impaired speech.

Jamie shook his head in frustration. "Nuh!"

"Oh! Danny's pizza," Betty recalled. "Green peppers, black olives and sausage. He had half a slice. He doesn't usually eat those."

"So, green peppers and black olives are the likely candidates," the doctor decided. "We'll do some tests to find out which one it is. But first, we'll get that itching stopped. How does that sound, Jamie?'

Jamie smiled. "Yeah!"

"Okay. My nurse has the shots all ready to go. An antihistamine and a steroid to control the swelling," he explained to Mary and Betty. "Drop those pants, we'll get those drugs in your system, and you'll be feeling better soon."

 _Shots!_ Jamie tried to twist free of his mother. Nobody had mentioned giving him shots, and they also hadn't mentioned giving him shots in his behind! He'd rather deal with the itching!

Half an hour later, Jamie was curled up on his side on his hospital bed, sleepy, cranky, but unable to actually get to sleep. The nurse had told Mommy the medicine would make him sleep all night. But his behind still hurt where that meany nurse had given him not one, but two shots with big, giant needles. And that nice Dr. Lilborne and his Mommy had let her! And there were too many scary noises – people shouting, machines beeping - and too many bright lights. And who knew when one of those mean nurses would be back with more needles? He hugged the teddy bear Dr. Lilborne had given him tighter.

"Mrs. Reagan?" the nurse called from the door. "How's our little patient?" she asked as she approached Jamie's bed.

Jamie rolled over onto his other side, away from Nurse Meany.

Mary stroked her son's head. "He's stopped trying to scratch, and the hives seem to be shrinking."

The nurse confirmed Mary's report. "That's good. And he's still upset with me, it looks like."

"Yep," Jamie tried to snap at her, but it came out sounding sleepy instead of cranky.

"He can talk better. That's good also."

Jamie pulled the sheet tighter around his head. Wasn't there anything he could do that would annoy the nurse?

"So, what do I have to do around here to get an update on my grandson's condition?" Henry Reagan called from the doorway.

Betty moved to stand next to her husband. "Henry, what are you doing here? You should be upstairs with Francis," she scolded.

"Francis is a big boy; he can take care of himself for a few minutes. He's worried about Jamie, and it seems those drugs they gave him are confusing him. I've told him five times already that Jamie was being taken care of, but he's not listening."

Mary looked from her son to her father-in-law, and back to her son. "I should be there. The doctor told me the drugs would impair his thought process. Maybe he'd listen to me," she fretted. "But I don't want Jamie to wake up without me here. He was so upset before."

"Mary, don't worry. I'll let Francis know again that Jamie is getting better. He'll believe me one of these times. I don't mind repeating myself until he does," Henry joked.

"No, I need to be there." Mary looked down at Jamie again. "Betty, you'll stay with Jamie?"

"Of course, Mary. Go see Francis."

"No, Mommy. Don't go away," Jamie begged. He reached out toward his mother.

Mary took Jamie's little hand in hers, and looked up at her in-laws. "Betty, can you go to Frank instead? I can't leave Jamie."

"May I propose another solution?" the nurse interrupted. "Why don't we take Jamie upstairs to his father's room? All we're doing now is observing him, and we can do that if he's here or if he's somewhere else in the hospital."

"You're allowed to do that?" Betty asked.

The nurse shrugged. "Dr. Lilborne won't have a problem with it, and as for the higher-ups? What they don't know won't hurt them, right?"

"I like your thinking, young lady," Henry commented.

"You gather up his belongings, and I'll be right back with a wheelchair." The nurse stepped out of the room.

Jamie relaxed. It sounded like Mommy would be staying with him, and he'd get to see Daddy, too. Maybe Nurse Meany wasn't so mean after all!

Only a few minutes later, the nurse formerly known as Nurse Meany in Jamie's mind pushed him into his father's hospital room, in a wheelchair meant for someone at least twice his size. He looked around the room and quickly spotted his father, lying on his back on one of the beds. "Daddy!"

"Jamie."

Jamie wiggled out of the wheelchair, catching his mother and grandparents off guard, and staggered over to his father's bedside. He grabbed onto the bedrails. "Daddy, the nurse stuck two really huge giant needles in my butt! And it hurt!"

"Yeah?" Frank mumbled. "Did the same thing to me." He patted the backside of his hip. "Right there."

"Yeah, right there," Jamie agreed.

"Made you feel better, didn't it? No more itching?"

"Maybe," Jamie admitted. "But I feel floaty and my tummy feels yucky and I'm sleepy but it's too noisy and there's too many lights to sleep here."

"The dizziness and nausea are minor side effects of the high-dose antihistamine," the nurse explained. "They'll wear off once he gets to sleep."

"Then, Jamie, let's get you into your bed." Mary tried to guide her son toward the empty bed.

"No! Wanna stay with Daddy in his bed," Jamie insisted. Daddy would keep the scary noises and any mean nurses away. He tightened his grip on the bedrails to prevent his mother from moving him, but also because the room was suddenly tilting funny.

"Let him." Frank carefully slid his aching body a few inches closer to the far side of the bed. "Plenty of room."

"If you're sure, Frank," Mary relented. After Frank nodded, she lifted her son onto the edge of the bed. "But Jamie, you have to stay very, very still, because your Daddy's back hurts when anything moves it."

Jamie quickly curled up with his back against his father's side and his head resting on Frank's shoulder. "'kay," he mumbled, already half asleep. By the time Frank's arm came across his son's little body to rest on his shoulder, Jamie was completely asleep. And within just a few minutes, so was his father.

==BB==BB==

The next morning, Doctor Lilborne came in to check on his patient. "The Misters Reagan," he read off the chart for the benefit of the other doctors doing rounds with him. "Young Jamie was sleeping off a drug bender, and the senior Mr. Reagan didn't look both ways before crossing a street," he teased.

Jamie, already wide awake and feeling all better after a good night's sleep, giggled. "Daddy, you know to look both ways."

"I'll remember that next time," Frank grumbled.

"Jamie presented with classic food allergy symptoms. Can anyone tell me what those are?" he asked the student doctors.

"Hives – urticaria – and angioedema," one of them volunteered.

Jamie raised his hand. "And itching," he added. "Lots of itching!"

"That's right, Doctor Jamie. Lots of itching," Dr. Lilborne said with a smile. "We treated in the ER with antihistamine and steroids, and kept him overnight for observation. It looks like all those symptoms have gone away, right Jamie?"

"Yes, sir," Jamie nodded. "All better."

"Doctor, did you determine what he was allergic to? Was it the vegetables on the pizza?" Mary asked.

The doctor looked down at his papers. "It was the olives. He's allergic to olives big-time. So, Jamie, what do you say next time someone asks if you want olives on your food?"

"No! No olives!" Jamie quickly responded.

==BB==BB==

"Well, you should be grateful to me for that. You got to spend the night with Mom and Dad, and also, you got to find out about you olive allergy when you were little so you could avoid the things. Not that you did a very good job of that today." Danny glanced over at his brother. "Jamie, you there?" He snapped his fingers in front of his brother's face.

"Hm? Um, I think I zoned out there." Jamie shook his head and tried to focus. "Should've said 'no olives' today instead of 'hold the olives.' Short and simple."

"Not sure it would have mattered with that sleepwalking idiot of a waiter we had," Eddie replied. "I still think you should have let me arrest him for assaulting a police officer."

"Ed, come on. It was an accident. Being stupid and sleepy isn't a crime."

"Unfortunately…" Henry grumbled.

"Yeah, it would make my job easier if I could arrest every numbskull for being a numbskull," Danny added.

Eddie glanced at her watch. "On the subject of making arrests, I should probably get going. Maybe find someone else to arrest, since you've nixed arresting that waiter." Maybe get out of this house before one of the two absent Reagans – namely Commissioner Reagan – showed up _._ "Thanks for the cookies and coffee, Mr. Reagan."

"And thank you, Miss Janko, for bringing Jameson home." Henry stood up and escorted her toward the door.

"Yeah, Ed, thanks." Jamie started to stand up, but sat back down quickly when the room tilted. Apparently, the side effects from the antihistamine were still in effect. "See you tomorrow?"

"See you then." Eddie waved good-bye to her partner and jogged out to the car.

* * *

 _Final chapter tomorrow!_


	6. Chapter 6

_As with Chapter 1, some dialogue from the Season 4 episode, Mistaken Identity. :)  
_

* * *

 _Back at the bar…_

Eddie blinked. _But maybe Dana doesn't need to hear all those details. Jamie can be the one to tell her all that._ "Oh, big-time. Halfway through lunch, he breaks out in these massive hives," Eddie summed up the whole incident for Jamie's friend.

"Oh my God. It wasn't that bad," Jamie protested.

"Turns out, the idiot waiter put olive tapenade in his salad," Eddie continued as if Jamie hadn't interrupted her.

"So she threatens to arrest the guy for assaulting a police officer." Jamie tried to move the conversation off the topic of personal details he hadn't got around to telling Dana yet. But putting the focus back on his partner may not have been the best choice, either, he quickly realized. Dana seemed to be getting uncomfortable with the tone of the conversation.

Eddie laughed. "I was just looking out for my partner." And on the subject of looks and partners, what was up with that stilted smile Dana was flashing at her and Jamie? Maybe she should step away from the table for a minute. She picked up her beer and pretended to just notice it was almost empty. "Oh. How'd that happen? I'll be right back."

Dana watched Eddie head to the bar. "She's really great."

"Yeah," Jamie agreed as he wondered where Dana was going with this conversation. That comment felt like some sort of courtroom cross-examination gotcha trap.

"Pretty, too."

 _Yep, definitely a trap. Dana was jealous of Eddie._ "Not like that, Dana. You count on your partner to cover your back. Last thing you need is, you know, personal stuff getting in the way of that."

"If you say so." Dana glanced toward the bar. "She knew you were allergic to olives. That's 'personal stuff' that I didn't even know."

"Dana, she knows because I got allergic at lunch last week. It's not like I'm keeping it secret or anything," Jamie protested.

"So, tell me," Dana coaxed, leaning closer toward Jamie and running her fingers through the hair at the back of his neck as she saw Eddie returning. "How did you find out about this olive allergy of yours?" she murmured in his ear. "Or should I ask Eddie?"

 _Oh boy, was Dana ever jealous!_ Suddenly, Jamie felt like the trophy in a tug-of-war game he hadn't realized was being played. Which was strange, because whatever feelings he sometimes thought he might have for Eddie, Eddie didn't have the same feelings for him. At least, he didn't think she did… He needed to get this conversation on neutral ground before more alcohol made things even more confusing. "Um, maybe we can discuss it in private later?"

Dana trailed her hand down his arm and around to his lower back. "How about in private, now?" She stood up, her hands never leaving his body, and Jamie quickly followed suite. He might not know how Eddie felt about him, but Dana was making it crystal clear how she felt, and what she wanted. And, damn it, he wanted it too. He could almost hear the sports announcer in his head, _'And Dana makes a big move. It's Dana, the out-of-town surprise girlfriend, taking home the win!'_ As they walked past Eddie on their way toward the door, he waved good-bye to his confused-looking partner. He'd explain it to her tomorrow; do something to make up for running out on her. Maybe buy her lunch at her favorite pizza joint. He'd just make sure to tell the pizza chef to hold the olives.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading!_


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